Hottest rain on record? Rain falls at 109°F in Saudi Arabia

Pilgrims to the holy city of Mekkah (Mecca), Saudi Arabia must have been astonished on Tuesday afternoon, June 5, when the weather transformed from widespread dust with a temperature of 113°F (45°C) to a thunderstorm with rain. Remarkably, the air temperature during the thunderstorm was a sizzling 109°F (43°C), and the relative humidity a scant 18%. It is exceedingly rare to get rain when the temperature rises above 100°F, since those kind of temperatures usually require a high pressure system with sinking air that discourages rainfall. However, on June 4, a sea breeze formed along the shores of the Red Sea, and pushed inland 45 miles (71 km) to Mekkah by mid-afternoon. Moist air flowing eastwards from the Red Sea hit the boundary of the sea breeze and was forced upwards, creating rain-bearing thunderstorms. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, this is the highest known temperature that rain has fallen at, anywhere in the world. He knows of one other case where rain occurred at 109°F (43°C): in Marrakech, Morocco on July 10, 2010. A thunderstorm that began at 5 pm local time brought rain at a remarkably low humidity of 14%, cooling the temperature down to 91°F within an hour.

Figure 1. Thunderstorms at 109°F? This true-color satellite image of Saudi Arabia taken at 2:10 pm local time (11:10 UTC) on June 5, 2012, shows a line of thunderstorms that developed along the edge of the sea breeze from the Red Sea. Three hours after this image was taken, Mekkah (Mecca) recorded a thunderstorm with rain and a temperature of 109°F (43°C.) Image credit: NASA.

More like a hot shower than a cooling rain?Thunderstorms often produce big drops of cold rain, since these raindrops form several thousand meters high in the atmosphere, where temperatures are much cooler than near the surface. Some drops even get their start as snow or ice particles, which melt on the way to the surface. Additional cooling of the drops occurs due to evaporation on the way down. However, in the case of the June 4, 2012 Mekkah storm, I think the rain was probably more like a hot shower. Large raindrops, like the kind thunderstorms produce, fall at a speed of about 10 meters per second. A balloon sounding of the upper atmosphere taken at 3 pm local time at a nearby station (Al-Midinah) found that the bottom 1000 meters of the atmosphere was 97°F (36°C) or warmer. Thus, the thunderstorms' raindrops would have been subjected to 100 seconds of some very hot air on the way to the surface, likely warming them above 100°F by the time they hit the ground. A classic 1948 study of raindrops found that, in many cases, raindrop temperatures start off cold in the first few minutes of a rain shower, then warm up to within 1°C (1.8°F) of the air temperature within a few minutes. With the air temperature a sizzling 109°F (43°C) at the time of the June 4 thunderstorm in Mekkah, the raindrops could easily have been heated to a temperature of over 105°F (41°C) by the time they reached the surface!

How hot can it be and still rain?If substantial amounts of liquid water are present on the Earth, the planet will experience rain, as long as some mechanism to lift the warm, moist air and cause condensation can be found. If the climate continues to warm as expected, we should see an increasing number of cases where it rains at temperatures well above 100°F. On Saturday, June 2, the temperature in Mekkah hit 51.4°C (124.5°F), a new record for the city, and just 1.1°F (0.6°C) below the all-time hottest temperature record for Saudi Arabia (125.6°F, or 52°C, recorded at Jeddah on June 22, 2010.) I expect that 20 - 40 years from now, we'll begin seeing occasional cases where rain falls at a temperature above 117°F (47°C) in the desert regions of North Africa and the Middle East.

Models continue to forecast a strong MJO pulse entering our side of the world as we head around June 20. This pulse is stronger than the ones that spawned both Alberto and Beryl, and the pattern appears more favorable for development as opposed to the one that the previous two named storms developed in. With lowering pressures across the Western Atlantic...specifically the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean...the area will need to be watched very closely from ~June 15 and on. The East Pacific could get "Carlotta" out of this pulse as depicted by the GFS and ECMWF as well.

Chris is a strong possibility even though the models aren't really feeling it.How did the models do with Arlean?.

Quoting aspectre:57 hydrus: ...How many posts do we get of someone describing what it was like to go through 1956,s Hurricane Flossie...

Zero: that pretty much looks like a standard Wiki

This is it.I haven't made any hurricanes but have suffered through a few.

In 1947, when I was about 3 months old my home town, Pointe-Ala-Hache, LA was hit by Hurricane George, The Fort Lauderdale Hurricane. My folks, building there own house at the time, were flooded in my grandmother's house. I was there but don't remember this one.

In 1956, Hurricane Flossy did not worry my father enough for him to evacuate us so at about 2 in the morning we children were awakened by our parents and evacuated to the attic. The house got about 5 feet of water in it but thankfully we didn't need the axe to cut our way out to the roof. I can still remember the morning view of the waves crashing into my cousin's house next door. Why my father had two windows put into the attic is still beyond me but they were used that morning. We were cleaning up the house by afternoon. My memory of that was sweeping the marsh grass out of the door as the water retreated and the water moccasin we found in one of the closets. My mother never tolerated staying at home again during any storm of consequence.

Had a few minor experiences during the rest of my hometown life but it wasn't till several days after I left for LSU in 1965 that Hurricane Betsy virtually destroyed the place. That hurricane did major damage to the town and it never fully recovered. My folk's house, raised to 11 feet off the ground after Flossy, was moved over 1/2 mile along the Mississippi River levee. My father had it returned to the site, raised even a little further, and he (with his sons helping) built the supporting structure very, very strong. It was months before the family got resettled into the house and if it wasn't for the iron will of my mother it might have never happened. The entire inside of the house had to be re-built.

In 1969 we had a very close call when Hurricane Camille passed a little east of Pointe-Ala-Hache. The storm surge up the river washed logs over the Mississippi River levee but not enough water to flood the town. The re-built (after Betsy in '65) Gulf side levee held. We never even lost electricity while the areas further SE in the Parish were badly damaged and flooded again. Later that same hurricane would dump enough rain over Nelson county, Virginia, my present home county, to kill 1% of the population in one night. A night of horror in the mountains when brooks and tiny creeks became raging rivers 40 feet deep. Some of the victims have never been found.

Finally, after both of my parents died, we sold the family place in Pointe-Ala-Hache, two weeks before Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore. Very, very few houses survived in town. Two that were destroyed were over 150 years old. But my parents home did take the 20 feet plus of storm surge and the mighty winds and waves. Several of the windows, including the frames, were completely knocked out and there was a refrigerator up in a tree outside but the house was one of the first completely re-built after the hurricane.

For all practical purposes the town, one of the oldest ones along the mighty Mississippi, has ceased to resemble anything I remember as a kid just 60 years ago.

Models continue to forecast a strong MJO pulse entering our side of the world as we head around June 20. This pulse is stronger than the ones that spawned both Alberto and Beryl, and the pattern appears more favorable for development as opposed to the one that the previous two named storms developed in. With lowering pressures across the Western Atlantic...specifically the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean...the area will need to be watched very closely from ~June 15 and on. The East Pacific could get "Carlotta" out of this pulse as depicted by the GFS and ECMWF as well.

amazing kind of a day here,a storm rolls in, you get a downpour then it leaves, sun comes out again and so on, not at all like yesterday where it was total overcast,windy with rain..and they said today was supposed to be the worst of this..i dont see it

I wanted to repost this and thank PercyLives for posting it. I believe real life accounts of hurricanes, especially from a long time ago, are important. Each story is unique and valuable, and if not written somewhere, that story is gone for ever with that person. It was a great post. How many posts do we get of someone describing what it was like to go through 1956,s Hurricane Flossie..!..Hurricane Flossy originated from a tropical disturbance in the eastern Pacific Ocean and moved across Central America into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression on September 21, which became a tropical storm on September 22 and a hurricane on September 23. The hurricane peaked with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 km/h) before it struck the central Gulf coast of the United States as a Category 1 hurricane on September 24, and evolved into an extratropical cyclone on September 25. It was the first hurricane to affect oil refining in the Gulf of Mexico. The tropical cyclone led to flooding in New Orleans, and broke a drought across the eastern United States. The death toll was 15, and total damages reached $24.8 million (1956 USD).A tropical disturbance moved northward, crossing Guatemala from the eastern Pacific ocean into the northwest Caribbean Sea between September 20 and September 21. It became a tropical cyclone soon after emerging into the Caribbean, and moved across the Yucatán Peninsula as a tropical depression before becoming a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on September 22 and a hurricane on September 23. It turned sharply east-northeast across the Mouth of the Mississippi river on September 24 as a minor hurricane. The storm continued east-northeast and made landfall in Florida east of Pensacola. The system evolved into an extratropical cyclone soon after passing out of the Sunshine State and continued moving east to northeast hugging the Atlantic Seaboard to near the Virginia Capes before moving slowly through the shipping lanes between Canada and Bermuda, blocked by a high pressure system in southeast Canada.This was the first hurricane to cause significant disruption to oil refining in the Gulf of Mexico.[9] Several hundred active wells went out of service, and drilling came to a halt for a few days during and after the cyclone's passage. One of Humble company's tenders saw three-quarters of its mooring chains compromised, which swung it around into an adjacent oil platform, causing $200,000 in damage (1956 USD).[10] The cost to downtime in production was greater than the damage Flossy created to the oil rigs.[11] There was no loss of life.[12] Due to the impact of Flossy on oil refining in the Gulf of Mexico, the American Petroleum Institute formed a committee called Fundamental Research on Weather Forecasting. Their goal was to use mathematical models and historic data to better predict hurricane formation and path. Studies went on into 1962, but no reliable forecast mechanism was found.[11]

The extensive volume of above-average sub-surface water temperatures indicates that the tropical Pacific SST anomalies will likely warm further in the coming months. A majority of models predict ENSO-neutral to continue through the June-August (JJA) season (Fig. 6). Thereafter, most of the dynamical models predict El Niño to develop during JAS, while the statistical models tend to favor the continuation of ENSO-neutral. Thus, there remains uncertainty as to whether ENSO-neutral or El Niño will prevail during the second half of the year. The evolving conditions, combined with model forecasts (Fig. 6), suggest that ENSO-neutral and El Niño are roughly equally likely during the late northern summer and fall. The CPC/IRI forecast calls for ENSO-neutral conditions through JAS, followed by an approximately 50% likelihood for El Niño during the remainder of the year (see CPC/IRI consensus forecast).

The extensive volume of above-average sub-surface water temperatures indicates that the tropical Pacific SST anomalies will likely warm further in the coming months. A majority of models predict ENSO-neutral to continue through the June-August (JJA) season (Fig. 6). Thereafter, most of the dynamical models predict El Niño to develop during JAS, while the statistical models tend to favor the continuation of ENSO-neutral. Thus, there remains uncertainty as to whether ENSO-neutral or El Niño will prevail during the second half of the year. The evolving conditions, combined with model forecasts (Fig. 6), suggest that ENSO-neutral and El Niño are roughly equally likely during the late northern summer and fall. The CPC/IRI forecast calls for ENSO-neutral conditions through JAS, followed by an approximately 50% likelihood for El Niño during the remainder of the year (see CPC/IRI consensus forecast).

* URBAN FLOOD ADVISORY FOR... WESTERN MANATEE COUNTY IN FLORIDA. THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF BRADENTON

* UNTIL 1000 AM EDT

* AT 902 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATEDRAINFALL RATES OF TWO INCHES PER HOUR ASSOCIATED WITH THUNDERSTORMSOVER THE ADVISED AREA...LOCALIZED FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR OCCURRING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

KEEP CHILDREN FROM BEING SWEPT AWAY IN FLOODED DITCHES AND DRAINS.FLOOD WATERS ARE USUALLY DEEPER THAN THEY APPEAR AND MAY STALL YOURVEHICLE. JUST ONE FOOT OF FLOWING WATER IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SWEEPVEHICLES OFF THE ROAD. TURN AROUND...DONT DROWN.

&&

LAT...LON 2751 8265 2749 8255 2740 8254 2743 8262

$$ee I am sure we are going to get more of these reports before the day is out huh...........